The final European race weekend of the season began today at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in northern Italy. Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher focused on evaluating the set-up and balance of their MGP W01 cars which ran in a special low-downforce configuration required for the high-speed nature of the Monza circuit.
Completing 59 laps and 55 laps respectively, Nico and Michael finished in the day in tenth and 14th positions.
Drivers
NICO ROSBERG
“Today was ok and the car is generally working well which meant that we could do some useful fine-tuning of our set-up. The tyres seem straightforward and I was happy with my long runs and the consistency that we were able to achieve. I had an issue with understeer through the faster parts of the track so we need to try to resolve that overnight. Our top speed looks reasonable so tomorrow will be about extracting the maximum from the car at its current level.”
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“Monza has always been a great track to drive and from the sensations and the emotions that I experienced out there today, it feels just like it did over the many years that I have raced here previously. Our performance today does not look too bad, especially in the first sector where we worked a lot on top speed, and look quite good. We are using our F-duct and it worked well given that the benefits on this track, where you have to use a small rear wing, are naturally much smaller than on other circuits. I am looking forward to what will hopefully be an enjoyable weekend. ”
ROSS BRAWN
“We’ve had a reasonable start today with the car and our specific aero package working pretty much as we had expected. Nico and Michael achieved consistent running throughout the day which enabled us to get through our test programme including work on the F-duct. We have a few issues to resolve overnight but it has been a decent start to the weekend.”
NORBERT HAUG
“Our lap times in race trim looked not too bad today. Our target is to achieve reasonable grid positions tomorrow with both cars and then have a good and consistent race on Sunday which will hopefully see Nico and Michael in the points again.”
